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Judge orders legal fees for ex-Great Falls candidate

A former state senate candidate from Great Falls has been awarded legal fees for a lawsuit he filed against the state and Lewis and Clark County over a political mailer he sent out that criticized his opponent’s voting record without providing details.

Judge orders legal fees for ex-Great Falls candidate

State Rep. Kelly Flynn made a motion for sine die, the official adjournment of the special session that was called to Helena to resolve budget issues. (Phil Drake/Great Falls Tribune, Erin Davoran/USA TODAY Network)
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HELENA -- A former state senate candidate from Great Falls has been awarded legal fees for a lawsuit he filed against the state and Lewis and Clark County over a political mailer he sent out that criticized his opponent’s voting record without providing details.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen on Jan. 19 ordered an award of $18,900 for attorney fees and expenses to J.C. Kantorowicz and the National Association for Gun Rights Inc. in their consolidated lawsuit against the 2015 Disclose Act passed by the state Legislature.

According to Matthew Monforton, Kantorowciz’s attorney, NAGR will receive $13,600 and Kantorowicz will receive $5,300.

State officials said the regulations were crafted to increase transparency.

The judge’s decision states that both parties as well as Political Practices Commissioner Jeff Mangan, who has been the COPP chief since April, and Attorney General Tim Fox have agreed to pay for the first and third causes of action.

Christiansen notes the agreement does not preclude both for seeking more costs if they are successful in appealing the second cause of action.

Jeff Mangan, commissioner of political practices.(Photo: Courtesy)

The cause under appeal regards the state’s successful defense of the Disclose Act’s constitutionality requiring disclosure of contributions and expenditures made to fund electioneering information or educational mailers sent to Montanans in the 85 days preceding an election.

Monforton is appealing that decision.

In May 2016 Christensen struck down a law that requires candidates who criticize the voting records of another candidate to offer details on the vote.

That stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Kantorowicz who ran for the state Senate District 10 seat in the June 7, 2016, primary against fellow Republican Steve Fitzpatrick, who won the election.

Kantorowicz’s complaint had argued that to send all the election material the law required would have transformed his one-page mailer into a “47-page tome that could not have been economically mailed to 1,100 residents.”

The lawsuit against then-Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, Attorney General Tim Fox and Leo Gallagher, Lewis and Clark County attorney, claimed that Kantorowicz’s First Amendment rights to criticize Fitzpatrick were muzzled by a law that he described as an “incumbent protection act.”

Matthew Monforton(Photo: Courtesy)

Motl said after the 2016 court decision that it is an issue the Legislature has grappled with for two consecutive sessions, adding it was the second time a court has struck it down as being unconstitutional.

“What this means to the people of Montana, and candidates and committees, is that there is no requirement that a candidate or committee disclose the vote, bill or enactment that a statement made in a campaign flier or communication is based on,” Jaime MacNaughton, chief legal counsel for the Commissioner of Political Practices, said Thursday. “Further, it means any future legislative action to attempt to require this information will likely be found unconstitutional and cost the citizens of Montana additional tax dollars to defend.”

MacNaughton said the statute was amended in 2013 to require “a disclosure of contrasting votes known to have been made by the candidate on the same issue if the contrasting votes were made in any of the previous 6 years.”

Monforton challenged the statute as unconstitutional, and the State agreed within him three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, MacNaughton said, and granted a permanent injunction against its enforcement awarded legal fees.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox(Photo: Courtesy)

Then in 2015 the statute was amended by the Legislature to require “a disclosure of all votes made by the candidate on the same legislative bill or enactment.”

The state did not contest its unconstitutionality and that is what led the judge to the Jan. 19 order, she said.